Physical Description: Lexus’s dirty-blonde hair is spiky and his skin is light brown; his eyes are as piercing as the fang-like teeth that fill his mouth. In his youth, he was seldom seen without an arrogant, determined smile; since his expulsion from the school, his strong jaw has been locked in a serious scowl.

Lexus wears a black, winter coat with a hood trimmed in white fur. A white ‘V’ slashes over his shoulders and down his chest. He wears loose-fitting black jeans and open-toed shoes.

Biography: Tevfik Rauf and Elena Vogel both passed on their Neo-Sapien abilities to their son, Lexus. The Turkish Tevfik bestowed his ability to conjure a coat of poisonous spines over his body while his wife, the daughter of Richard Vogel (Lionheart), imbued her son with her father’s ability to transform into an anthropomorphic lion.

As Manticore, Lexus has the Neo-Sapien ability to transform into an anthropomorphic lion with a barbed tail that carries a potent toxin—abilities that made him a candidate for enrollment at the New Vindicators Academy of Europe.

On his first day of class, he met Cornelis Noteboom, a Neo-Sapien from the Netherlands. The two boys quickly became good friends and as the year continued, their friendship evolved into something more…

The night they decided to take their secret relationship further, they were discovered by the headmaster: Lexus’ grandfather, Richard Vogel…

Disapproving of their relationship, the headmaster planned to separate the boys. Feeling it would be a disservice to Cornelis to expel him, the man instead expelled his grandson from the school—notifying Lexus’ parents of what had happened and hoping that they would straighten him out…

NVAE: quaere verum—Lexus began to sneak back onto the campus, offering cryptic warnings to the newer students. Slowly, the boy’s involvement with a terrorist organization, Laputa, came into suspect. It was only when one student—Vlad Radikovich, Candyman—defected to Laputa’s camp that the truth came out: Lexus’ parents had joined the group and installed him into the organization as well. Lexus’ loyalty remained with the school; however, due to a psychic trigger implanted by Lacuna, Lexus risked being possessed by the villain if he directly exposed the society’s aims.

Michuru81 wrote:I've said before that I'm not too keen on posting a build that I intend for my players to fight. As I wanted to keep Manticore's alignment a secret, that meant withholding his build (my reasoning is that if I had posted him, the players in my PBP game would have figured out that he's really on their side). Still, by this point in the campaign, it's OOC knowledge of why he's been so cryptic and that he's one of the good guys. Plus, posting him seemed like the Elemenoh thing to do.

I'm not happy that he came out over budget. Sadly, this has been trimmed down from 150 points. What makes him so costly is the pair of auras he sports--his poison quills. The simplest solution would be to drop them a rank or two but I can't shake the feeling that he'd hardly be that imposing.

Biography: In 1990, leaders of Al-Akhwan, a network of militant Islamists, observed a wondrous demonstration: an American scientist, Doctor Noah Meinstein, had found a way to bestow select Neo-Sapien abilities on children in vitro. Seeing the potential for this, Al-Akhwan, purchased eight Primes—all boys to be fathered by one of their members—a mysterious figure who would be known universal over a decade later as Jihad.

Though the world would not learn of Jihad’s Neo-Sapien ability until September 11, 2001, Al-Akhwan knew: Jihad was a man capable of creating seemingly limitless duplicates of himself. It was hoped that the eight children would manifest more than the absconded abilities they paid for and that each of the children would also possess their biological father’s talent for cloning himself.

Indeed, seven of the eight Primes showed themselves capable of creating duplicates of themselves. Each of the children was subjected to martial training and special training in the use of their respective abilities.

In Ja’fari’s case, this ability was one inherited from the Vindicator known as Onyx: Ja’fari is capable of transforming into living rock…

NEW VINDICATORS ACADEMY OF EUROPE: quaere verum—What began as a simple search and rescue mission took a turn for the worse... Led by Current and Quintessence, Greystone, Impasse and Sublime had journeyed to Oran, Algeria in search of the missing Mouloud Poundstone. The trail led them to the Islamic Relief Foundation and, posing as an Algerian, Greystone won passage into the group’s lower levels. There, he met three of Jihad’s clones and Ja’fari…

Michuru81 wrote:How To Mess With Your Players1) Post a build like Manticore and say how you don't post a build the players haven't fought yet.2) Post the build of a character that currently looks to be their next opponent.3) Watch them wonder if the posted build means they're not going to be fighting said character.

Some time ago, I was hit by the idea that in the Oubliverse, Neo-Sapiens could be more devastating than nuclear weapons. To that end, I aspired to be lame and conceive a story where rather than a "that evil country is totally building nuclear weapons" we had "that country is totally putting together a team of Neo-Sapiens!" The result? A militant group buys a few Primes off of Doctor Meinstein.

Originally, I was going to mix and match abilities. Imagine a Prime with the Iron Curtain and Lodestone's power, or Oynx and Halogen's (invisible tank, anyone?). I eventually settled on duplicating Vindicators--because Duplication is a fun power. Still, I didn't want to be too abusive--which is why Ja'fari here can only make five duplicates and only one at a time. Oh, and they're not heroic. They may sport an obscenely high Toughness save, but once they fail, they go pop. Each of Ja'fari's brothers will have a variation on this--with Jihad hinting in the game that Hanafi comes closest to him...

Just like his dad, Ja'fari's power makes him a great suicide bomber--not because of the duplication though, but because his ranks in impervious will eat the bomb blast. A great tactic for him is to spread out his duplicates in an area and have them all trigger their respective explosions--possibly weakening a team before the real fight can begin.

Physical Description: Bethany appears a handsome woman in her late-forties: a grey streaks her bobbed hair and crow’s feet are visible at the edges of her eyes. She carries a little extra weight around her hips and tries to hide this behind the jackets of pantsuits—which she is seldom seen outside of.

Biography: Though she had a modest upbringing as the daughter of a taxi cab driver and a housekeeper, everyone always assumed that Bethany Fischer was destined for greatness. Skipping the fourth- and seventh-grade, Bethany graduated high school at the age of sixteen-years-old and had to obtain her parents’ permission to marry her classmate, Arthur Colbenson.

A year later, while plowing through her undergraduate work, Bethany gave birth to her first child, Cheryl. Six years later—and with her doctorate in view—Bethany conceived again…

In August of 1982, America became embroiled in the Lebanese Civil War. Arthur—then sergeant first class—was deployed. Bethany, working on her doctorate in human development and family studies, met a roguish man who introduced himself as Sam White. One night of passion left her pregnant with her second child, Autumn. The United States withdrew from the conflict in 1984 and Arthur—able to perform basic math—realized her infidelity.

Though he was willing to forgive her, Bethany blamed him putting his career as a soldier ahead of their family as the catalyst behind her unfaithfulness. The two separated, with them sharing custody of Cheryl and Bethany retaining sole custody of Autumn.

Years passed; Bethany tried and failed to find Sam White while Arthur succeeded at climbing the rungs of the military ladder. Meanwhile, something began to grow inside of Autumn: abilities inherited from her father began to display themselves… Able to manifest a dome of translucent, white energy around her, it wasn’t until a secondary effect of her abilities was discovered that the United States government took interest in the child. Given his connection to the girl’s mother, Arthur was ordered to retrieve Autumn.

As Autumn had been given her step-father’s surname upon her birth, Arthur claimed that the child was biologically his. With the backing of the United States government, paternity tests were falsified to support his claims and he fought for sole custody of the girl.

In order to secure a victory, Autumn’s psychosis was brought into question: the girl claimed she heard voices that urged her to do horrible things and given her mother’s background in psychology, the woman’s professional reputation was discredited. Ultimately, she was declared an unfit mother and stripped of her right to raise either of her girls.

Determined not to give up on winning her children back but realizing she would not win such a battle in the United States, Bethany Fischer became an expatriate…

The woman began campaigning in several European countries, looking for the means to appeal the ruling and secure even visitation rights. Her attempts failed and soon, both girls were considered adults. Bethany’s repeated efforts to rejuvenate her relationship with her eldest were met with hostility, with Cheryl blaming her mother and half-sister for tearing apart their family.

NEW VINDICATORS: quaere verum—As the 2008-2009 school year began at the New Vindicators Academy of Europe, the United Nations’ Department of SPB Affairs invited Doctor Fischer to join the faculty at the New Vindicators Academy of Europe as one of the two headmasters, joining Sir Isaac Newton in administrating the school for teenage Neo-Sapiens. Seeing it as a chance to redeem herself as a mother and protect other super-powered children (much like her youngest daughter), the woman jumped at the chance…

NEW VINDICATORS: condemnant quod non intellegunt—Doctor Fischer hired members of Crimson Shadow to abduct her daughter, Doctor Cheryl Colbenson, in order to allow her to interrogate her as to the whereabouts of Autumn… At Cheryl’s prodding, Bethany was able to connect the dots and realized that certain events during the White War hinted at Autumn’s presence somewhere in New York City…

Michuru81 wrote:She may not look like it but Beth here is one of the bigger players in the Oubliverse at this point... Not only is she the woman in charge over in the NVAE PBP RPG but she's connected to some of the more important NPCs over in the tabletop game.

Wow. Ja'fari looks like a formidable s.o.b. If the rest of the brothers are that formidable Jack, Lex and company have their work cut out for them.

Love Dr. Fischer. Her build just shows, important characters don't have to be able to crush bricks barehanded or fly to the moon or whatever to be formidable. Sometimes wealth and connections are the greatest super-powers.

Biography: In 1939, the Winter War began with the Soviet Union’s attack on Finland. A year later, the Moscow Peace Treaty ceded the area of Karelia to the attackers. Nearly four-hundred thousand people left their homeland and migrated to Finland. Amongst them was Rauni Kilde, a Nephilim capable of wielding red hellfire.

Though Rauni married a Finnish man, she tried to instill in her children the memory of what she considered her homeland. She taught them to speak the Karelian language and play the kantele. A love for the Karelian culture was instilled in Rauni’s children and passed on to her grandchildren.

In 2008, Rauni’s great-granddaughter, Pirjo, heard the news of what was happening in the United States. She heard that tales of Neo-Sapiens being ripped from their homes and put into concentration camps—she saw the refugees migrating into Europe. She was reminded of her great-grandmother’s generation and felt that history was repeating itself.

As a Karelian Neo-Sapien, Pirjo wanted to do something to help her sukukansa—her ethnic family: she joined the ranks of Laputa…

NEW VINDICATORS—quaere verum: On her first mission, Felsic encountered Fluxx—her mentors’ son—albeit while he was posing as Beatrice Marceau. Though it seemed Felsic’s orders were to kill the girl, she pleaded with her to flee to Paris, even going so far as to offer to help fake her death. Upon Fluxx revealing himself, she pleaded with him—revealing what could have been construed by Laputa as a duplicitous nature, which Fluxx attempted to take advantage of. When pleading with him failed, Felsic transformed and their battle ended as quickly as it began: after receiving a punch from Felsic, Fluxx passed through the street and used the sewers to escape.

Felsic was not encountered again until the Laputa Invasion, when Candyman, Ursa, and Pict charged into the island’s engine room, only to encounter the girl and her mentor. Upon realizing what they were here to do, Felsic pleaded with them to reconsider, knowing that disabling the instruments would disable to the island’s life support system. In an effort to stop her from revealing that the heroes were about to potentially kill themselves, Entier attacked her ward.

Following Laputa’s defeat, Felsic was apprehended. According to Adeltrudis Flaegler, special consideration would be made for many of Laputa’s pawns, given their age.

Michuru81 wrote:Full disclosure: this is not the Felsic that punched Fluxx. Due to recent changes in my design philosophy, she's been scaled back a smidge--losing some of her aptitude for fighting and bringing her to 120 points.

Last edited by Michuru81 on Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

Physical Description: Armande is an athletic young man with olive skin and thick dark hair. The numbers 00073 are burned on the inside of his right arm. When transformed, his skin takes on a slate color.

Biography: Armande offers little information on his past, prior to his capture. What is known is that Black Box attacked him and his family in Nevada. His parents attempted to cover his escape. Armande was found less than an hour later and taken down, where his captors revealed that they had been forced to kill his parents.

At Peoria, Armande was branded. He was among the prisoners freed by the New Vindicators, and taken to Canada.

NEW VINDICATORS—quaere verum: Months after his liberation from Peoria, Armande (now calling himself Rheid) turned up as one of Laputa’s pawns. Though designated as Captain Nelson’s protégé, the man’s assignment as a spy kept him interacting with Rheid, thus making Rheid a free agent. Despite this status, Rheid was not sent on field assignments by Laputa.

During the Laputa Invasion, Rheid clashed with a large contingency of Vindicators and New Vindicators. Though he proved to be an indomitable opponent, he was finally bested by Magnitude.

Following the defeat of Laputa, Rheid was taken into custody. According to Adeltrudis Flaegler, special consideration would be made for many of Laputa’s pawns, given their age. Further, given that Rheid had not actually committed any crimes prior to the invasion, she believed that whatever sentence was cast down upon him would be merciful.

Michuru81 wrote:What directed several of the Laputa builds was simple need: I needed Erudite, Therianthrope, Confectionery, Vociferant, Zehrli, and Lioness to follow their offspring in design. Characters like Felsic, Niloticus, and Tantivy rose out of a need for certain niches to be filled: Tantivy was the speedster, Niloticus is the tank, Felsic couldn't be (safely) touched by Fluxx (that's a niche now)... but with Rheid, there was no need to be met. I could do whatever I wanted.

It hit me that the quota on rock dudes and liquid people is being met, but not both at the same time. Rheid is basically liquid rock, which... doesn't make much sense.

In any case, Rheid (more so than Felsic) has some wiggle room to grow: 27 points stand between this build and the allowance I'm comfortable with giving NPCs of his PL. Maybe as Rheid's story begins to justify it, he'll get a bit of a boost. For now though, here he is.

Looking over her stats, I don't think Felsic really counts as a PL 8. Even if you rule that her Energy Aura could stack with her Strength (rather than forcing someone to make two Damage saves), she'd still only be PL 6. Still, those last 5 points could go towards fixing that-say, Attack Specialization (unarmed), some Dodge Focus.

I think I read something once that Rheid joins the school, but I can't find anything now to support that. Maybe I was imaging things...

Arthur Eld wrote:Looking over her stats, I don't think Felsic really counts as a PL 8. Even if you rule that her Energy Aura could stack with her Strength (rather than forcing someone to make two Damage saves), she'd still only be PL 6. Still, those last 5 points could go towards fixing that-say, Attack Specialization (unarmed), some Dodge Focus.

She did hit ceilings for a PL 8, but after looking over her history, I felt there was no justification for her having an attack or defense bonus, given that prior to meeting Martin, she was just a girl scouring the internet in Finland. Since meeting Martin? Well, she hasn't much thrown a punch. I think I'd rather her come into her values, with PL 8 basically being her destination.

I think I read something once that Rheid joins the school, but I can't find anything now to support that. Maybe I was imaging things...

Nope. My intention is that Felsic and Rheid both are handed over to the NVAE, and I've likely made a slew of mentions here and there.

The only thing that confuses me about Felsic is the modifier adjustments on her powers. A range touch power with a Duration of Instant, should require a +3 modifier to become a Sustained Aura...at least according to Ultimate Power, so her corrosion power should be 6PP/rank. The modifers given in her description make it appear as if her power would cost 9PP/rank, but I don't see how that's accurate.

Horsenhero wrote:The only thing that confuses me about Felsic is the modifier adjustments on her powers. A range touch power with a Duration of Instant, should require a +3 modifier to become a Sustained Aura...at least according to Ultimate Power, so her corrosion power should be 6PP/rank. The modifers given in her description make it appear as if her power would cost 9PP/rank, but I don't see how that's accurate.

Could you clarify please?

I can't. I have no idea what I did there... In any case, it let me retool some things with her: bringing the corrosion aura up to continuous and making it permanent, so that she lacks the luxury of being able to turn it off while she's made of molten rock, as well as bumping it up a few ranks in an attempt to justify her PL.

Biography: In 1922, Larsa Eshoo said goodbye to her family for the last time. The fourteen-year-old girl was an Assyrian, who called the Ottoman Empire her home. While her parents’ and siblings’ lives were claimed by the Sayfo, Larsa was saved by an older boy, who had golden flames that burned in skull where his eyes should have been.

The Kurdish Serkewt kept Larsa safe by having her pose as his bride. As time marched on, they found that they were no longer playing at being in love, but truly were. They welcomed their first child into the world: a girl they named Ajna.

Though Ajna never inherited her father’s ability to conjure yellow, heatless flames, she did have his bizarre ability to summon poisoned quills along her skin. It was an ability her parents insisted she keep hidden, fearing Ajna or her siblings might spark another culling.

Ajna eventually married and gave birth to children, who married and started families of their own. As generations passed, Serkewt’s power passed, as did the tale of the horrors Larsa survived.

Tevfik Rauf grew up knowing the depths man’s hatred could sink to. Believing in fighting to better the world, he joined the Turkish Armed Forces. As his homeland transitioned into a turbulent time, he met a journalist from the United Kingdom—Elena Vogel—and fell in love.

The two married and welcomed a son into the world: Lexus.

For years, the Raufs lived peacefully in Turkey. All that changed on November 15, 2003, when agents of Al-Akhwan bombed Istanbul. Sent to Istanbul to help in the aftermath, Tevfik Rauf spotted one of Jiahd’s duplicates and realized another attack was about to follow. In the ensuing melee, Tevfik used his powers, and as a result was discharged from the TAF.

NVAE—quaere verum: Years later, in 2008, the Raufs began hearing reports of injustices happening overseas. His great-grandmother’s experiences with the Sayfo, his expulsion from the TAF, and the prejudice his son was shown due to his homosexuality led Tevfik to pledge himself to Laputa, an organization that spoke of a better tomorrow.

During the Vindicators’ and the New Vindicators’ invasion of Laputa’s base of operations, Tevfik found himself facing off against Fey. The diminutive Irish girl’s arcane talents got the better of him, removing him from the fight, and bringing him to justice.

Michuru81 wrote:Let's talk about foreign codenames. If you're entire power is that you're poisonous, you're not going to call yourself "Poison". Sure, Marvel has "Venom" and "Toxin", but "Poison" just sounds stupid. Yet, as "zehirli" is the Turkish word for "poison", that's essentially what Tevfik here has done: he has named himself "Poison". Now, maybe it would work if he was a girl and had a certain Bell Biv DeVoe song cue up whenever he walked into a room, but here... it's not... and I'm just drawing attention to how utterly lazy I am.

Last edited by Michuru81 on Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

Biography: On September 12, 1980, General Evren led a military coup against the Turkish government. Over the course of the next three years, military rule was phased out, as the government was given back to the civilians. With the turning of the 1990’s, political unrest returned to Turkey, and Elena Rauf was dispatched to cover the situation.

Though her father had devoted his life to using his powers for the good of the world, Elena Vogel had no such ambitions. In lieu of using her ability to transform into an anthropomorphic lion to fight crime in the United Kingdom, Elena elected to study photography at Gray’s School of Art at Robert Gordon University, becoming a photojournalist after graduation.

Employed by the British Journal of Photography, Elena was sent to cover the story unfolding in Turkey, and it was there that she met a soldier. She would later tell friends and family that she took his picture, but he took her heart.

Not long after, Tevfik and Elena were married and welcomed their only child into the world: Lexus.

NVAE—quaere verum: With Lexus inheriting both of his parents’ abilities, Elena sent her son to Austria, where her father had been named headmaster of a school for Neo-Sapiens. Before his first year could come to a close, however, Lexus was expelled by his grandfather, after his romantic relationship with a male classmate was discovered.

Elena challenged her father’s decision, pointing out that he wouldn’t have expelled Lexus for having a relationship with a girl. Elena attacked her father for “acting as much of a bigot as the people who oppose Neo-Sapiens are.”

Shortly thereafter, news came across the Atlantic: a Vindicator had used his powers to assassinate a presidential candidate who was outspoken in her detestation of Neo-Sapiens. A fever swept across the States, resulting in rumors of concentration camps and forced sterilizations.

Ever the activists, the Raufs drew the attention of an American Neo-Sapien: Tabitha Lamperouge, who offered Elena a chance to finally do something good with her powers…

The Raufs—Tevfik, Elena, and Lexus all—were drafted into Laputa, an organization seemingly devoted to doing just what General Evren had done decades before: wresting command away from a corrupt government and giving it to the people it oppressed.

Laputa’s plans culminated with their arrival in Vienna—actions that prompted the Vindicators and the New Vindicators to invade Laputa’s flying island fortress.

Elena located two of the young heroes: Warder and Fach. Though the Swede had died in the crash, the German girl was still conscious. Elena moved to restrain her, only for Fach to fight back with her sonic scream. Realizing the easiest way to disable her, Elena transformed and sank her teeth into the girl’s throat.

It was then that two other students of the school her father had once administered arrived: Ursa and Eiron.

While Eiron fought to keep Fach from bleeding out, Ursa fought to subdue the beastly woman. As the more savage of fighters in their respective camps, the two were evenly matched; however, Ursa began to waver.

It was then that another New Vindicator arrived: Lluvia, Fach’s ex-boyfriend. Upon seeing the girl he still harbored feelings for lying half-dead, Lluvia went wild, conjuring a storm cloud and raining a bolt of lightning down for the Scottish woman. In an instant, Lluvia’s rage had claimed Elena Vogel’s life.

Michuru81 wrote:As I was working on the backgrounds for Lexus' parents, it struck me that an overwhelming percentage of the cast were only children. Was there something in the infernal blood that affected fertility? I think the Manther family shoots that theory down. So, in an attempt to sort of expand on their families, Tevfik gets a brother and Elena gets two brothers--brothers who might as well carry on the family legacy. Plus, it helps to flesh out England's superheroes. With Arthur Eld and I hammering out some ideas on villains to fluff Paladin and Blue Knight's rogue's gallery, the United Kingdom is slowly becoming a hotbed of evil activity--maybe there's justification in creating a British team of supers who serve the crown, rather than the UN, as the Vindicators do? Time will tell.

Poor Lioness, we hardly knew ye. Here's hoping at least one of the Vogel brothers takes up the hero mantle.

Also, there was at least one mention of two other European campuses being built-one in London. Might help stem the tide of British super crime, and make for fun interschool rivalries outside of the Trials and such.